Choices

Summary: This story takes place in Eclipse when Riley goes to Bella’s room to gather her belongings for Victoria. This is what could have happened if Bella had arrived while he was still there, and the events following. Written pre-Breaking Dawn, so that book will be disregarded here. This will include my idea of how the series would have ended.

Notes: *Written before Breaking Dawn was released, so that book will be ignored with this story.

1. Old Acquaintances

In keeping with the "slumber party weekend," Alice dropped me off in front of my house in case Charlie was home. The cruiser wasn’t there, so I assumed he must be at work. "Sorry Alice, I guess you wasted a trip over here, Edward could have just brought me. I didn’t know Charlie would be at work. He was scheduled to be home."

Alice laughed, the sound reminding me of a dozen tiny bells ringing. "Bella, don’t be so silly. Actually, I already knew that Charlie wouldn’t be here, but I wanted to spend some time with you. After all, Edward had you to himself all weekend. Besides, I had to explain how all the new clothes I bought for you as "evidence" work together, and who designed them so you can properly show Charlie later." She flashed a brilliant smile at me and winked.

"Yes, Alice, I’m sure Charlie will want to know exactly who designed what, and how it all coordinates," I laughed, shaking my head. "Regardless, thank you for bringing me home, and thank you for all the clothes...it was unnecessary."

"You’re welcome Bella! And maybe next weekend we can go shopping for real...I know just the place..." Alice had that mystified look in her eyes that she gets when she talks about shopping.

"We’ll see, you know that I only have so much room in my closet, Alice," I said, stepping out of the car and turning to wave. Alice had turned the stereo back up to her preferred volume level, which normally hurt my ears, and was bouncing along to one of her favorite songs. She waved enthusiastically as she sped out of the driveway. I just shook my head, laughing again.

After unlocking the door, I set my bag on the floor so I could turn on the lights. Upon entering the kitchen, I found a note from Charlie - "Bells, got called in to the station, not sure when I’ll be home. Go ahead and eat without me, just in case. Love, Dad." Sighing, I rolled my eyes, knowing that meant he would just order another pizza at the station.

The fridge’s contents were sadly lacking, so I decided I wasn’t hungry, and turned for the stairs so I could take a quick shower before Edward got here.

As I grabbed my bag and started up the stairs, I froze. What was that? I could swear I heard something. I stayed still for another minute, then determined I was just being paranoid. It was probably just the wind against the house, as it was raining fairly heavily.

Opening the door to my room, I threw my bag onto my desk. Just as I had turned to my dresser to get some clean clothes, I felt the ice cold grip around my throat. Before I could even react, there was a piercing pain in my neck, and weakness overwhelmed me. Crashing down to the floor, I heard hissing and growling in the distance, then found myself suddenly alone. What had just happened? I couldn’t focus...there was so much pain.

A second later, someone was pulling me off the floor of my room and I was flying through my bedroom window. When I hit the ground I heard more low, hissing whispers.

"What were you thinking? This wasn’t the plan! I should have know not to count on someone like you. I never should have stayed in the car," a distinctly feline voice hissed.

Realization hit me hard; I had been bitten. Suddenly, as the burning began, I collapsed to the ground. Completely overcome by this new pain, I wished he had killed me. I tried to think clearly, but everything was blurring together.

"Victoria, I’m sorry! You said she wouldn’t be here!" someone cried out.

"I didn’t think she would be, but that doesn’t excuse your actions; it was hard enough constantly making it look like I didn’t have a plan, continuously changing my mind to keep that psychic from seeing us. I had to use you, an unknown - the others would have been watching for me too closely. They weren’t watching for you, Riley. So what do you do? You mess everything up anyway. As soon as you heard her going towards the stairs you should have gotten out of there! You will have to pay for this, Riley."

"I’m sorry - I just wanted to get enough things from her room to make you happy, Victoria. You said to take as much as I could - I was just trying to do my best. I did everything right. I stayed far enough in the woods that nobody would detect me, and waited for her friend to leave. When I heard her on the stairs, I thought I could control myself - I’ve been helping you convert the others for so long, I thought I could just hide in her closet until she left again, that way I could get more things. When she walked in, I couldn’t help it - her scent was so strong. I managed to stop though - only because of my experiences with you, changing the others - I knew you’d want to finish it yourself," Riley said. " I didn’t know I’d take so much - there’s no way live now, there’s hardly any blood left in her. I’m sorry Victoria, but this way you can at least still hurt her more before she dies," Riley pleaded, trying to atone for what he’d done.

"I’ll deal with you later. Leave her. Let me see how much damage you’ve done," the feline voice hissed.

It was nearly impossible to focus; the pain was causing my vision to blur. There were two people there - one of them had to be whoever had attacked me, a male. He looked torn; he clearly wanted to finish what he had started, but reluctantly stepped away from me. Fiery orange hair filled my sight as the second person stood over me - Victoria.

"Bella, Bella, Bella. I really wanted this to happen differently," she sighed. " I was hoping to make more of a game out of it, to draw things out a bit more - James would have liked that. I should have found a way to handle this task myself, then things would have gone differently. Instead, I put my trust in Riley here to collect some of your things. Pity you came home when you did; I’ve been creating an entire army of newborns just to tear you apart...how wasteful." Victoria had a look of disgust on her face as she spoke to me, pure hatred burning in her eyes. She looked back to Riley.

"Since you bit her, you know exactly how much blood you’ve taken - is it enough to kill her? Her heart sounds incredibly sporadic. I don’t want her to become one of us...but I would like to have a little fun first...Riley?" she hissed in his direction.

"There’s no way she’ll make it Victoria, I’m sure of it. I took almost all of it, and her body is already starting to crash - she’s too weak, and the venom won’t spread fast enough - she’d never survive the conversion, her heart will fail first..." his words rushed out, eager for her to forgive him. He still had an edge to his voice, as though he were struggling.

"Get a grip, Riley," Victoria hissed. "We’ve changed countless newborns - you should be able to handle the smell of blood by now." She snapped her attention back to me.

"Fortunately, it looks like Riley has taken most of your blood. You’re such a weak person, Bella, I think your body will give in to death quickly...but not before I make it hurt just a bit more." Victoria reached down as she said this, and lifted my left arm lightly, then with a wicked smile, she slowly placed her hand underneath my elbow, and began to press upward. I screamed in pain as I felt the bones in my arm shatter. She stepped backward slightly, her eyes on my legs. She very gently took hold of my right ankle, seeming to study it. "Humans are naturally weak, Bella. It never ceases to amaze me that with just the slightest touch," she said as she lightly, but sharply twisted my ankle almost all the way backwards, "you can simply break a person." My screams filled the air again in reaction to my shattered ankle. She punched me in the face, and delivered several kicks to various parts of my body, all while laughing madly.

How long could this go on? It seemed like hours had passed, but in truth I knew all of this, including the point when Riley had first bit me, had taken place in just a few minutes.

"I would drain the rest of your blood myself Bella, but this way seems so much better. I like the idea of drawing out your suffering - yes, that does sound nice," she leaned closer, listening intently. Yes, you’ll get to enjoy your new injuries a little while longer before you go into cardiac arrest - your heartbeat is already much slower. Everyone thinks your so special...I don’t get it. You’re nothing. Besides, I wouldn’t contaminate my system with your blood - I don’t know why James insisted on tracking you. At least I can draw out your death a little this way...still, it would have been so much better -" She stopped speaking abruptly, as we all heard a car door slam. A fierce look crossed Victoria’s face, and she looked back at me. "Maybe this is going to turn out much better than I thought," she sneered, her eyes narrowing.

Oh no. I could only assume Alice had ‘seen’ this, and now Edward had arrived, and he was going to end up in a fight with two strong vampires, one of which had just consumed a great deal of human blood. "Edward, stay away, leave me here," I tried to scream. Instead it came out weak and barely audible. There was so much pain, so many kinds of pain. I could barely move, and the horror of helplessly having to watch as Edward was destroyed completely immobilized me.